Community Chat

[itiswhatitis]

Authorities rescued 344 pigeons from a squalid Long Island home that had at least 2 feet of droppings and bird seed on the floor.

“The droppings are so deep, we couldn’t even open the doors from room to room. I’ve never seen a house that was a pigeon coop,” said Gary Rogers, a detective and spokesperson for the Nassau County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“It’s a horrible situation. Years and years of living like this,” Rogers said from the home on Abbot Avenue in North Merrick.

“We found rats in the house, and if there were dead pigeons in the house, they were eaten by the rats,” Rogers said, adding that many live pigeons were found with rat bites. The pigeon hoarding was discovered when the Nassau County Department of Buildings went to the residence for an unrelated issue.

They notified the ­NCSPCA, which obtained a search warrant from the District Attorney’s Animal Crimes Unit.

"The occupant of the house, we don't know how he got around because you couldn't open the doors more than six to eight inches because of all the droppings on the floor, the refrigerator could not be opened, there was no way he had food in here," Rogers said.

The SPCA was tipped off about the pigeons by the Town of Hempstead.

Neighbors had complained about the house to the town building department. The DA then executed a search warrant at 7 a.m. Thursday. SPCA officials on the scene wore HAZMAT suits. They were working Thursday to remove the birds, some of which had neurological disorders.

The 68-year-old homeowner was taken from the home on a stretcher to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow for evaluation.

http://abc7ny.com/news/hundreds-of-pigeons-found-in-merrick-home/1512699/

[Mrsq2022]

I know that I should feel sympathy for this man who is clearly mentally ill but....eeew!!  When I read that many of the live pigeons had rat-bites I literally shuddered. They were being eaten alive in there.  

[itiswhatitis]

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@Mrsq2022 wrote:

I know that I should feel sympathy for this man who is clearly mentally ill but....eeew!!  When I read that many of the live pigeons had rat-bites I literally shuddered. They were being eaten alive in there.  

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Yes.  There IS something wrong here.  No family or anything to help him?  He must be alone.  Neighbors say he wasn't always a recluse.  Something went wrong and he slipped through the cracks.

[Trinity11]

I think it speaks to the fact that mental illness is not always treated effectively. We used to have institutions that people could live in who couldn't care for themselves. Now they are left on their own often without any follow up.

Many times families abandon their loved one because they are unable to care for them. Sometimes, they refuse to take their medications and need supervision. In this particular case, this person fell through the cracks, which seems to be happening more and more.

[jaxs mom]

I can't even imagine the lung damage from breathing in the fumes. 

[Jacie]

Sadly, I think hoarding is more common that we think. Hope the man recovers and some of the birds as well. Bless the HazMat suit people for their duty!

[itiswhatitis]

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@Jacie wrote:

Sadly, I think hoarding is more common that we think. Hope the man recovers and some of the birds as well. Bless the HazMat suit people for their duty!

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Very much so.  It's not always "objects either."  @Jacie, women will have their homes run over by cats (hoarding).  The pigeon hoarding seems to be prevalent enough to warrant quite a few stories every now and then.